| Kudos should be given to Dr. Ruth Simmons, the president of Brown University who, approximately three years ago, appointed a blue ribbon commission to study Brown University's ties to slavery and the slave trade. President Simmons is the first African American president of Brown University. She was appointed to that position after serving as the former president of the prestigious woman's institution, Smith College. Her actions to take a strong and positive leadership role on this issue are impressive even more so because President Simmons has been able to trace her heritage directly back to descendants who were slaves. The commission, which was chaired by Africana Studies Professor, James T. Campbell, issued its report in October of 2006. The report has been the subject of heated debates and commentary on campus and was recently criticized by arch conservative and reactionary David Horowitz and covered in the national media. Brown's ties to slavery and that of a number of other prestigious and Ivy League Universities has been examined in detail in an article written in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Thomas Bartlett titled: "After Brown U's Report on Slavery, Silence (So Far) ... Few Other Universities Appear Ready to Investigate Their Historical Ties to the Slave Trade." Representatives from other universities should go to Brown University's website, type the word "slavery" in the search engine and take a look at the report and other related news items to learn how a great university has done a first-class job in handling such an important and delicate matter. In 1764, the very wealthy family of Nicholas Brown and Co. of Providence, Rhode Island, commissioned one Esek Hopkins, captain of ship they owned named the "Sally," to disembark for the Windward (West) Coast of Africa to trade its cargo of onions, candles, tobacco, and rum for African slaves. Imagine that, trading stale vegetables, tobacco, and yes, booze, for human beings! When people think about the slave trade and slavery, they most often think about places like Charleston, New Orleans, Richmond, and other places in the American South. Most of the big money that was used to finance the slave trade, and the huge profits that emanated from it that gave rise to the industrial revolution, was concentrated in the hands of a number of wealthy families located for the most part in the New England states. During the same year of that 1764 voyage of the "Sally," the Brown family gave the fledgling College of Rhode Island -- the precursor to Brown University, one of its largest and most significant donations that resulted in the renaming to Brown University in their honor in 1804. The Captain's Log for the ship "Sally" is interesting reading in that it paints a picture typical of how the slave trade worked and proved to be so fatal to the African captives. While the ship was docked on the West Cost of Africa, some 20 of the African captives died in the "baracoons" -- the slave pens that warehoused the captives in places like Elmina Castle off of the coast of modern Ghana or Goree Island off of the coast of modern Senegal, before they were packed on board the ships for departure to unknown lands never to return. One of the forms of resistance that the Africans used to fight back was suicide and at least one of the captives exercised that option as an alternative to the tragic experience that lay ahead of him. After the ship was able to attain a full "cargo," like many others, it set sail for the West Indies where many of the New England slave ships went to sell their cargo for money or some of the cash crops or mining goods produced by slaves in exchange for the newly arriving slaves on board the ships. During that terrible voyage across the Atlantic Ocean often referred to as "the middle passage," 109 of the captives on the "Sally" perished leaving a total of only 83 remaining slaves who were "sold at a discount because they were sickly" upon arrival. The Brown family made a specific request to skipper Hopkins to bring four young African males all the way back to Providence for their own personal use. Only three of the four actually made it Providence. " To their credit, Professor Campbell and his committee concluded by making a powerful statement indicating that the University's ties to the Brown family meant that this great institution had a blemished past that must be exposed and addressed if Brown was to take a major step towards healing some very old wounds. Regarding the implications for other institutions that may have similar involvements, Campbell noted, " ... It's not for us to prescribe to other Universities what they ought to do ... but it does beg the question of what the others should do." The report called for Brown to formally acknowledge its ties to the slave trade and slavery, to build a memorial to this heinous activity on campus, and to establish a Center on Slavery and Justice. Many of these efforts are already under way at Brown. Reading about Brown's efforts reminded me of an experience I had while I was a student at UMass Amherst. I learned that the neighboring private and very prestigious Amherst College used the logo of the "Lord Jeffs" for all of their athletic teams in honor of one of their most venerated founders. I also learned from some of the American Indians on campus that there was another side to ole Lord Jeff. They informed me that Lord Jeff was also responsible for delivering small pox-infested blankets to the local Indian population that resulted in a massive epidemic that killed and sickened scores of them. That experience has taught me that in Amherst and, even here at liberal and lofty Wisconsin, people of color have had, in many respects, an entirely different relationship with the institutions they have attended, including our relationship here with "Bucky." When one thinks about our illustrious institutions of higher education with all of the enlightenment that the images conjure up, it is very hard to fathom the possibilities that such nefarious connections do in fact exist. Well, they do exist and they should not be covered up or denied. It is high time for all institutions to take a hard and direct look at their pasts so that they may be able to come to grips with them. Obviously, a number of the institutions in the Southern states, such as the University of Alabama, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University have direct ties to the Confederacy and many don't hesitate to flaunt this as a legitimate part of their tradition. Other prestigious Northern universities such as The University of Pennsylvania and Yale University have had extensive ties that only recently are being excavated, investigated, and revealed. Some of the University of Pennsylvania's founders were in fact slave owners. Yale University named some of its colleges in honor of slave owners who were alumni and major donors. The most distinguished of which was Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of "The Morse Telegraph Code" who was an ardent supporter of slavery who once said regarding African slaves that "this barbarous race needed to be enslaved in order to be Christianized." To promote that, and in a move which documents the historically close ties between Christianity and slavery, his money was used to endow Yale's first distinguished chair which was in, you guessed it, Divinity Studies! America, and American colleges and universities need to follow the lead of Brown University by making an honest effort to uncover all aspects of their past, face up to it, and most importantly, where appropriate, make real and substantive efforts to make amends. They owe this to their legacy and traditions, to truth and justice, and most importantly, they owe the efforts to uncover the past to give homage to those on whose sweat and toil and ultimate sacrifices helped create the foundation for these great institutions of higher education. |
| The Literary Divide/Dr. Paul Barrows Fessing up to slavery, the slave trade, and the financing of higher education |
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